


Rise from Ashes

by terracyte



Series: Loyalty Through Fire [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Kinda, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Worldbuilding, Zhao (Avatar) Is An Asshole, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, brief mentions of chit sang, its really zuko takes center stage, jee just wants to rest, so much, soo much drama, sorry he'll be there more in the next part, too much drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25080454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terracyte/pseuds/terracyte
Summary: In the dregs of the Earth Kingdom, the former crew of theWanibegin to hear about a boy who chased a legend and succeeded. They hear about a lost boy far from home, and about a coward that escaped Caldera the day the sun disappeared. They hear from all sides about Fire Prince Zuko.[Didn't you hear?][Didn't you see?][Our prince came back for us.]------[Things were beginning to change, and Zuko finds himself gaining loyalty both from his people new and those past.]
Relationships: Zuko & The Fire Nation (Avatar), Zuko & Zuko's Crew (Avatar)
Series: Loyalty Through Fire [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812955
Comments: 155
Kudos: 2219
Collections: A:tla, Finished111, avatar tingz





	Rise from Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I might have a gone a bit ham on this one; case in point, its 4000 words in one day of crazed writing. 
> 
> And I'm really sorry, I know I promised more Chit Sang vaguely in a comment, but I swear he'll be there more in the next part! This fic really ran away from me and went ahead and wrote itself. Jee and Zuko's crew were like front and center and I love them very very much. And the names used for crew members belong to the lovely MuffinLance, who you should all definitely check out! 
> 
> The pretty dramatic brackets and the overall vibe were pretty heavily inspired by Do You Hear the People Sing? by generic__username which oh my god is _such_ a good fic and you should definitely go read that.

_[There were whispers.]_

“You can’t sacrifice an entire division like that!” 

_[Did you hear?]_

“Those soldiers love and defend our nation. How can you betray them?”

_[Really? Did he say that? For us?]_

The wall of flames flared higher. 

_[Do you know who he faced? Did you hear?]_

“Rise and _fight_ , Prince Zuko.”

_[He stood for us.]_

\------

The _Wani_ was burning.

Broken wreckage and metal parts sunk slowly into the cold waters of the harbor, still smoldering. The crew had been boarding the new ship when it happened, an explosion and a flash of bright light from the bay and the sound of a creaking ship, their creaking home, sinking.

There were about twenty of them, some ragged and aged while others had only been a few years older than the prince himself. They had trained on metal decks and sang around a fire with tsungi horns and pipas, all just a bit out of tune and time. They had sat with the kind general and played pai sho and drank tea. They had trained with the prince, watching as he ran through katas and pushed and pushed until gentle hands and words from his uncle beckoned him to rest. 

It had been a small and decrepit thing, the _Wani_. But it had been home.

Lieutenant Jee, despite his official title, had been its captain. He was the one the crewmen reported to first, and he in kind would relay it to the general and the prince. 

But after Admiral Zhao (an undeserved promotion, if you asked Jee), had ferreted away the crew, himself included, the lieutenant found himself almost sad to say goodbye to the old ship. The ship and the open seas and the kind general, Jee had told himself, that’s what he would miss. Because, of the things he missed, it definitely did not include the brat that had shouted and barked at the crew all day, definitely not the boy that had nearly dislocated his shoulder catching their helmsman when the _Wani_ had been racked by a roaring storm, and definitely not the prince that had stayed ever loyal to his people and gotten burned for it; definitely not him. 

(Jee wouldn't find out about the fate of the _Wani_ or the prince who had supposedly died inside it until much later, when they had almost reached the Northern Water Tribe borders with Agni’s rays bearing down on their backs. 

There was a flurry of activity around him as they prepared for the siege. 

Jee himself had stood among the firebenders, a helmet on his head and armor in place, no different from the other soldiers. Even with his crew at his back and all of them preparing to fight in the name of their nation (nevermind it being under _Zhao_ of all people; that was a downside), Jee shook off the sense that it was all wrong.

He tried to ignore the way that the steel decks and narrow halls didn’t feel quite the same despite them being identical to the ones he had been living on and waking up to for three years. They were too dark and quiet, too orderly and new, nothing like the _Wani_ had been. 

And if he noticed that there was a distinct lack of the scent of ginseng and the absence of distant shouts of an angry teenager on deck?

Well, Jee would try to ignore that too.)

\------

The North brought nothing but death and destruction. 

They were met by mighty ocean waves and high glacier walls lined with waterbenders with faces painted in grey and white and expressions set in steel. They waited until dawn, and the crew watched as their ships filled the skies with black snow, like the very spirits themselves were cursing their siege. 

But then the actual physical manifestation of La had risen from the ocean depths, glowing and breathtaking and _angry,_ because their very own bullheaded admiral _had killed the moon_.

(Jee _knew_ that had been an undeserved promotion.)  
  


He, along with Kyo and Hanako and Teruko and Kazuto and Genji and Dekku — although they weren’t pikesman or hawker or engineer or even lieutenant anymore, just nameless soldiers acting on fool’s orders — were all plunged into the cold, cold waters and cast to the sea along with corpses and shrapnel.

\------

The Northern waters had been bare-bone cold, freezing and unrelenting to the dregs of floating bodies that drifted by; both the ones still breathing and those that had stopped. A floating piece of driftwood would be what saved Jee, and he clenched it with cold hands and refused to let go. 

_[Didn’t you hear?]_

But even as he glared up at a masked Water Tribe warrior and allowed himself to be taken beyond the frozen walls and thrown into a cold, cold cell, a small part of him wondered why he had bothered saving himself at all. 

Then, he saw Kyo, and Hanako, and Teruko, and Kazuto, and Genji, and Dekku. Against all odds, they had held on and survived with him. Puffs of condensation escaped from his lips as he looked up at the small window on the cell ceiling, taking in what little sunlight that came streaming through like a man starved. And after another unseen breath of fire, Jee realized he’d found part of the reason why.

_[Didn’t you know?]_

The weeks trickled past and the scout ships began returning with new reports. There was a prince, an invasion, and an avatar (Agni, Jee hadn't heard that word in a while) who needed their aid. On the day the sun disappeared behind the moon, the Fire Nation scum would be rendered powerless, unable to use their flames to cause any more destruction as they were cornered in their own capital. It would last eight short minutes. 

But a lot could change in eight minutes. 

_[Things are changing.]_

In eight minutes, Jee sat in his cell and stopped shivering. In eight minutes, he would give the crew and anyone else who had survived the signal, and in eight minutes, a group of captured Fire Nation soldiers would slip away from the harbor, free.

Worlds away, a prince would take his eight minutes. 

“I am going to speak my mind, and you are going to listen!”

Zuko found his voice and made himself heard. 

_[Say, didn’t you hear our dragon roar?]_

\------

It was easy to be humbled when he had eaten nothing and earned nothing and worked for nothing. The gnawing emptiness made him open his eyes and see. 

There had been Song, a girl with burn scars on her legs but she kept running. Her strong and kind heart had gone untouched by the flames fanned by the destruction around her. Song and her family had helped him and Uncle when they could barely help themselves. 

_Why?_ Zuko found himself asking. _Why did they do that? Why?_

There had been Lee, a boy who had his brother and father taken from him but still looked up at Zuko and asked him to stay. He swung Zuko’s dual dao in a sunflower field lit by stars and laughed, young, carefree, and childish. Then men from his own nation, bullies and cowards, had come to take him away, but Zuko couldn’t see another child be dragged off to fight. His golden eyes and lit hands resulted in scorn and shouts to get out of their town, but when they could have beaten him and taken away his ostrich-horse, they had let him ride off into the setting sun.

They hated him; they hated him and they hated the Fire Nation. And Zuko started to see.

There had been Jet, a boy like him, filled with anger and hate, but cared for his kids and tried so hard to change for them and for himself. He had everything taken away from him by Fire Nation and he lived a life where he couldn’t and wouldn’t forget. Stolen nights and narrowed eyes passed and Zuko realized how much his nation, his father, had wronged.

Hate only bred hate, and had Zuko been different, he would have shed tears for the young man Jet could have been.

How many more were there? People scarred and alone and barely living, all because of a war they were born into? Boys would be dragged away to the army and gone to face other boys on the battlefield, when they should have been laughing together and playing. Children and elderly sat dusty and worn on the side of the road, their ribs showing through meager clothes and their hands outstretched, begging for the basic necessities of life.

Zuko was starting to see.

(He wasn’t too different from them, was he?) 

Uncle used to say that at a man’s lowest, he is open to the greatest change.

_[It begins.]_

At his lowest, the prince bowed his head, let the cotton fall from his eyes, and saw clearly.

\------

_[Did you hear? Did you see?]_

The prince was a traitor. The official story said he had shown his ungratefulness on the Day of the Black Sun. With fool’s daggers strapped on his back, he had openly disrespected the Fire Lord (again) and turned his back on his nation (again?). 

_[Did he do that? Really?]_

The palace servants spoke to one another in hushed voices. They knew of the traitor prince, and how he had stood up to his father. They were reminded by the ugly burn marring the young prince’s face as they tended to him and offered him tea and prepared his room and served his food. But they hadn’t seen a cruel boy, no. 

The citizens outside the Caldera would hear about a young man that said please and thank you, that told servants not to bow to him and smiled at them when they had only done their jobs. One that didn’t hit them when they slipped or shout when they misspoke. 

He was...different. 

_[Really, the prince? Is that true?]_

After the sun reappeared and they were told to forget the prince (a disgrace, the Fire Lord declared), they didn’t listen. They had seen only the surface of who their prince was. 

_[Yes, he is Agni’s blessed.]_

They wanted to see more. 

\------

_[There were whispers.]_

A scrappy wooden boat—a raft practically— drifted along the river, filled with Fire Nation soldiers far from home. They were barely getting by, boiling seawater and getting meager earnings from the fish they caught with handmade nets.

When they finally hit land, Jee never thought he would ever be so glad to be on solid ground again. They stripped their uniforms and replaced them with common Earth Kingdom wear at the nearest village, and after restocking, they moved on. 

They weren't sure what to do now. Did they return to the capital? Did they crawl back in green and tainted by shackles of blue? For now, they waited. They traveled and made stock. They needed to be prepared. They went from one small village after the next, and soon it was impossible not to hear the whispers. 

So they started to listen. 

_[Did you know? Their prince turned traitor.]_

They frowned. Their prince? He had betrayed them? 

After a night at the pub of loose spending and loose lips, Kazuto learned about a prince who had stood and redirected lightning. His own father had wanted him dead. 

The crew listened with thin lips and furrowed brows. You didn’t do that to one of your own.

To your _own child._

_[Did you see? Agni has turned his back on the Fire Nation.]_

They started to hear about the prince who had chased a legend (a journey they had been a part of) and succeeded. They hear about a lost boy roaming the lands far from home, offering his dao and helping hands. They hear from a small Earth Kingdom village about a young man they had driven away, despite him saving them. 

From fellow Fire Nation soldiers in neutral ports, they hear about a boy who had taken a coward’s path out, a boy who had thrown away his honor and status on nothing more than his own childish whims. But from the honest and from the hushed, they hear about a prince who had spoken with kind words and stood for the people. 

They heard from all sides about Fire Prince Zuko. 

But there was one fact, one story, one shout that made Jee want to almost break down in hysterical laughter. ( Although, Hanako didn’t refrain.) They drank and cheered for their angry teenage brat that night because it seemed like all those years at sea had finally made him grow a pair.

_[Didn’t you know? Didn’t you hear?]_

Their crazy captain had joined the Avatar.

\------

_[Agni was angry.]_

In all his life, Tailor Kistu had never seen a cloudy day in the capital, in the very heart of the Fire Nation.

Every day there had been sunrise and sunset, and Agni’s light would wash over them. Even the rest of his family, all non-benders, felt the warmth of his grace. They all knew when it had disappeared that there was something terribly wrong.

The sun shone, but it didn’t _warm_.

_[Clouds have fallen over Caldera.]_

It had never felt quite the same after the young prince had been banished and sent away from home.

It felt empty, the palace workers would think. Where was the boy who had run through the halls and sat squatting next to the turtleduck pond? It felt cold, the lower class citizens would muse. What had happened to the mysterious boy who had come into the streets to play with their children and teach them how to laugh again? 

Something was gone from the hot humid air, something missing in the people of the Fire Nation’s hearts.

Little did they know, it was pulling away from port only hours after the Agni Kai, unconscious with fire in his left eye. 

_[There came the cry of a dragon, who had once longed to return home.]_

The Fire Nation kept advancing. 

New colonies and occupations littered the Earth Kingdom, and every day, the people could do nothing more than watch fearfully as their Fire Lord grew more and more aggressive. There was a frightening gleam in his eyes these days, and they could see it starting to infect their princess. 

It had been nearly a hundred years. Who was the war hurting now?

How many more of their children would it take?

_[There came the cry of a dragon, who was returning to save them.]_

The palace workers rediscovered kindness when the prince returned. 

He said please and thank you, and looked pained when they prostrated after their failings. He crouched by the turtleduck pond and didn’t treat them like objects. They were still wary, but they wanted to believe that they didn’t need to be. 

They would know that he preferred to brew tea himself, and that he thought his bed was too soft. They saw but didn't quite know why, that even as he was being treated like the prince he was, he didn’t seem like he wanted to be. He was not the boy they had remembered, nor the young man they thought he would become.

But when he left, somehow, they knew he would return.

_[It begins.]_

\------

There was dragonfire.

_[Did you know?]_

It swirled and danced and roared and Zuko danced along with it.

_[The prince is worthy of the dragons.]_

The colors were breathtaking. So many shades of crimson, gold, emerald, lapis, and lilac. They swirled upwards and tried to show him. 

_[Of course he is.]_

Zuko understood.

_[He is Agni’s blessed.]_

\------

It was over. 

Azula was sobbing, her hands tied in chains and her angry lips spitting blue fire. Zuko couldn’t help but feel a pang of grief. That had been his baby sister. Another child taken by the war, another tainted by _Ozai_.

Said man ( _monster_ ) was seething but broken. He had had Agni’s blessing taken away. He had been too foolish a child to have deserved it anyway. 

The war was done but the fighting was not. There was still _so much_ to heal. 

But it was a start, and they were all willing to try.

Zuko started to let himself hope. 

\------

The hawks came, and they brought only messages of peace. 

There were cries of outrage, of lost commanders that demanded the messages be disregarded because they were so clearly _fake_ \- 

But the messages kept coming, and the commanders could no longer ignore the crimson seals stamped on each one. They spat and seethed as their infantry sighed in relief, but slowly, they began to pull back. 

_[Did you hear? Our prince has returned.]_

It would be long before there would be negotiation halls filled with reds and greens and blues, but it was a start. 

_[He came back for us.]_

Jee watched as a soldier— now free to be just a man — ran from the dock to catch his children in a crushing embrace, tears free-flowing and a grin stretching on his face as he held onto his wife’s hand. Jee suddenly felt an outstanding surge of pride and rubbed at his chest. 

His old wounds must be acting up again. 

(But beside him, Kyo would have no such delusions or any ill-fated attempts at lying to himself, and the poor man was almost breaking down as he smiled at the scene with wet eyes.

It was their very own brat who had made it possible, 

and damn if they weren’t all _proud_. )

And then they were stepping onto the ships in place of the men that had returned, back on familiar steel decks under flags that rustled red.

_[Their Prince was telling them to come back home.]_

And they were heading home.

\------

It was after the coronation that Jee finally managed to find Zuko.

The newly crown Fire Lord was not alone, already shadowed by two guards who stood vigilantly behind him at a distance. He was kneeling at the edge of the dock and dressed in his common wear, his hair free of the topknot and crown. 

Zuko held a small flame in his hands, eyes closed and muttering beneath his breath. He was facing north, looking out on a stretch of sea that disappeared towards the horizon. The black waters of the night reflected the yellow light in his hands. 

Jee gave a look at the guards, one of whom narrowed their eyes at him. (Jee didn’t recognize him— not that he had expected to—but the taller man seemed awfully protective of their young lord. It was good that Zuko had found someone so loyal, Jee supposed.)

Jee narrowed his eyes right back and cocked an eyebrow. The guard did not waver, but he grunted and relaxed his stance, in silent permission for Jee and his crew to approach the young Fire Lord. 

They exchanged a small nod and Jee’s armor creaked in a way that betrayed his muted excitement. Hanako and Teruko strode on right past, stopping just a few feet from the still kneeling form of their former captain. Jee himself walked forwards, but stopped short when he saw just what Zuko had been muttering to. 

There was a small stick of incense burning from a golden holder, and in front of it, as if in offering, was a pipa that looked very much like Jee’s own. Surrounding it were other trinkets; Hanako’s knife, Teruko’s scarf, Kyo’s bracelet, Genji’s komodo-rhino ribbon, Kazuto’s hair tie, Dekku’s mug.

Was the boy keeping vigil...for them?

Jee squashed down the mushy feelings that began to take hold, instead replacing them with the dry remark of:

“I do believe our spirits would have lost their way months ago, sir.”

The boy, to his credit, did not startle nearly as much as Jee would have expected. Zuko turned to them, the flame still burning but flickering and red now, eyes wide and jaw almost dropping. He scanned over them with harrowed eyes, and Jee thought he might burst into tears before their lord quickly turned back towards the sea.

“...Are you real?” His voice was painfully small. The smallest licks of the waves against the shore threatened to drown it out. 

Hanako barked out a laugh at that, and this time, Zuko really did flinch. 

“Don’t play games with me,” he snarled, shrinking into himself further. “I can’t- Don’t make me deal with this right now.”

Zuko ducked his head, and his voice was a whisper. “..please.”

Hanako stopped laughing, and the rest of them sobered up considerably. 

Jee stepped up, hands behind his back but his words soft. 

“We aren’t playing any games, Prince Zuko.”

And because of that voice (Zuko had heard it crack ever so clearly on music night), and that laugh (Zuko had heard it echo in the engine room when she had found an _especially interesting_ way to fiddle with the breakers ), and the shuffle of nervous feet (Zuko heard it whenever he had been up at the helm and may have slightly lost his temper), he turned. 

And there he saw stupid Jee and his stupid sideburns and creaky armor, and Hanako with her stupid short stature and her stupid gaudy knife and Teruko with her stupid high ponytail that swished so hypnotically whenever she let her head free of her helmet-

And suddenly Zuko was thirteen and angry, and those were the people that he was going to spend his next few years (it might have been _the rest of his life_ -) with, and they were all there and _breathing._

Something wet prickled in his good eye, and Zuko immediately raised a hand to his face, already knowing it would come away damp. 

“ _Fuck_ ,” he growled.

This time, Teruko was the one to chuckle. “Still swearing like a sailor, sir?”

And this time, all Zuko did was give a happy choked up laugh back.

\------

They “formally” meet the new Fire Lord in the palace. 

Zuko was pointedly less tense then they had found him last night, and instead of gazing through them as if at spirits, his eyes shone with quiet happiness that came after finding out your entire crew, who you had spent three years growing up beside and _definitely did not come to care for like family, shut up, Uncle_ , was alive and well.

The former crew of the _Wani_ approached their lord with respectful bows, and Jee—still somehow the silently agreed upon ever-suffering leader— stepped up and regarded Zuko with the beginnings of a smile tugging at his lips. 

“Your Majesty,” he said respectfully. 

“Jee,” Zuko said back, because he wasn’t really sure what titles he should be using anymore. He turned to address the rest of the room. “Teruko, Kyo, Hanako, Kazuto, Genji, Dekku.” 

There was a silence then, but not really for very long.

And then, Teruko spoke. “Do you still have a place for us here, your Majesty?” 

“You can stick us anywhere, really,” Genji piped in. “But I’m sure we would all prefer if we could keep an eye on you.” 

“Of course there is!” Zuko said quickly, as if he couldn’t really believe that’s all they were going to ask. “You’re all welcome to work at the palace.”

But then a look that could almost be interpreted as shy drew over his face, and his words were almost a whisper. "That’s...if you would like?"

Jee felt something in his heart surge, and suddenly he was reminded this was the same bratty teen he had been taking orders from on the small decrepit ship they had called the _Wani_ , the very same teen that had yelled and huffed at them but had cared for and saved them all the same. That brat was the Fire Lord now, and Jee almost couldn't believe how far he (how far all of them) had come. 

Beside him, Teruko didn’t bow. _She kneeled_ , head dipped in respect. It was befitting for their captain, their prince.

“I would serve no other.”

Kyo took a knee, then Hanako, then Kazuto, then Genji, then Dekku. 

“We will follow you.” 

This is the boy they saw grow up before their very eyes, and now, they saw a young man they could proudly call their own.

A fierce blush painted the prince’s — no, the _Fire Lord’s_ — face at the bold declarations, but he turned to Jee with trepidation regardless. There was a silent question. As if Jee would give any other answer.

He would deny it but no one was looking, so Jee allowed a smile to linger on his face as he, too, kneeled.

"It would be my honor, Fire Lord Zuko."

_[It begins.]_

And they would all stand with him, for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments really do make my day like you have no idea
> 
> Of course thank you so much to all of you that drop a kudos or really even bothered to click on this story! The last part in this series was my first contribution to the atla fandom and my god all of you are so nice, some comments literally made me want to cry I was so happy
> 
> but, enough of that, thanks a lot for reading and I'd love to hear what you think!
> 
> you can find me over on tumblr [@terracyte](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/terracyte) if you'd like :)


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